


Uncertain Adoption

by Boomchick



Series: Tumblr Prompts [4]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: (potentially future Sephiroth/Cloud), Child!Sephiroth, Dad!Vincent, Friendship, Gen, Parenthood, Vincent Valentine Is Sephiroth's Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:29:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24556219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boomchick/pseuds/Boomchick
Summary: Oneshot prompt fill from TumblrVincent tries to be a good father to Sephiroth. Sephiroth tries to be a good friend to Cloud.
Series: Tumblr Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1774831
Comments: 9
Kudos: 154





	Uncertain Adoption

**Author's Note:**

> One of a series of prompts written on Tumblr for those who are supporting the BLM movement. This one was requested by https://lindsmorr.tumblr.com/
> 
> If you've donated, protested, or otherwise supported black lives, you can come and make a request too! https://boomchickfanfiction.tumblr.com/

It took him a few months to start calling the child ‘son.’ But it made the boy so happy that he practiced.

“Professor Gast used to call me 'my boy.’” The child said, his voice clear and strong right up until it faltered. “Until he left. Hojo just calls me–”

“Hojo is gone.” Vincent said, and rested his unclawed hand gently in the child’s hair. He was eight, according to his records. He looked older and younger at once. Huge eyes, but a body uncommonly strong for his age.

“Forever?” Sephiroth asked, looking up at him out of those blinding monster’s eyes.

“Forever.” Vincent agreed, feeling the creatures inside him roiling in satisfaction.

There were a thousand things to consider with a child. Schooling, for one. Vincent’s knowledge of everything was nearly a decade out of date, and he had never known anything about children. If anything he was less fit as a parent than he had been as a TURK, which was saying quite a lot. None of it good.

But every time he even considered giving Sephiroth away… Sephiroth, who Hojo had shoved into a mako tube in the mansion so close that Vincent had heard the child begging…

He had failed Lucrecia. But it was not too late for her child.

There was no school in Nibelheim. And he remembered the townspeople as cold, unwelcoming, small-minded. But there was a small library. So he took Sephiroth there to start trying to figure it out themselves. That was where they met Claudia and her son.

“Where do you two live around here?” Claudia asked the third time the children ended up working on their handwriting together, practicing by writing notes to one another. “Not to pry. It’s just a small town not to have met you before.”

“The old mansion.” Vincent said, eyes on his son, watching Sephiroth work.

Silence for a moment before Claudia commented. “Challenging place to raise a child.”

“I’d assume it’s challenging to raise a child anywhere.” Vincent replied, and Claudia let the subject drop.

“Look,” Sephiroth whispered to him as they walked home together. Vincent was very aware of the townspeople’s gazes upon them, but Sephiroth ignored it. Like someone used to being watched. He just passed up a crumpled piece of paper. Vincent took it carefully in his claw, looking over the scrawled words.

“Want to be best friends?”

Beneath it, Cloud had included a check box for 'yes’ and 'no.’

“You didn’t answer?” He asked Sephiroth, glancing down. “I believe he expected you to select one.”

“I told him yes,” Sephiroth said. “But I wanted the note. So I kept it.”

A week later, he almost lost that best friend by clinging too hard. Vincent saw too late the warning signs of a concerning possessive streak, and had to intervene to physically stop Sephiroth from hurting Cloud when he tried to leave a play session early. The poor boy had sprinted out of the mansion, blond hair rumpled and his shirt torn. Sephiroth had struggled in his arms.

“Let me go!” He ordered. “Let me go! I can still catch him!”

“You will do no such thing.” Vincent said firmly, forcing himself not to hold tighter. Not to hurt. He had promised Sephiroth he wouldn’t hurt him.

“He’s leaving!” Sephiroth howled, falling apart in his arms as he hadn’t in the many months since Vincent had killed Hojo and claimed him. “He’s leaving me!”

Vincent wasn’t good with tears. Wasn’t good with PEOPLE. But he cared for Sephiroth. So he tried. Turned his restraining grip into a hug. Still tight, but warm and safe. His cape fell around them both as he bent over, hugging his crying son. Sephiroth struggled only twice more before going boneless against him, wailing like the child he was, coming undone at the seams.

“Why did he leave?” He cried, clinging to Vincent.

“You scared him.” Vincent said, as honest as he could. “You must give your friends freedom and choice, Sephiroth.”

“Not him,” Sephiroth choked. “Why did Professor Gast– What if it’s me? What if you leave? What if everyone–”

“No,” Vincent was already saying, scooping the boy up. He was big for his age, but still just a child. And he curled into the hold with his shaggy silver hair falling over Vincent’s shoulder as he sobbed into his cowl. “No. I will never leave you.”

“What if Cloud does?” Sephiroth choked out against his neck.

“Then you will make more friends.” Vincent said, wincing at his own tone as it made Sephiroth shake harder with sobs. “But… I think if you apologize Cloud will understand.”

Sephiroth apologized the next day. To Cloud where he hid behind his mother’s skirt. And it was only as he was speaking that Vincent realized he should have had a talk with Sephiroth about the fact that his story was… Unusual.

“It’s just that the only person I ever really cared about left,” He was trying to explain, one of his hands gripping Vincent’s cape and the other curled at his chest. Emotional vulnerability was hard for him. Weakness of any kind was. Hojo did that to a person. “And then my father…”

“Vincent?” Cloud asked softly, peeking from behind his mom’s dress.

“No.” Sephiroth said, shaking his head. “Vincent’s my dad. Hojo was my father. But he hurt me. He hurt everyone. So Vincent killed him.”

Ah, Vincent thought, staring straight ahead of himself at Claudia’s widening eyes. That could be a problem.

“But it’s not an excuse!” Sephiroth was hurrying to say to the transfixed Cloud. “I want to be your friend but I don’t… I’m making mistakes. I’m sorry I hurt you. And scared you. I promise I won’t again? If you’ll…?”

“Cloud,” Claudia was saying, uncertainty in her voice. But Cloud was already ducking around her and throwing himself at Sephiroth, squeezing hi tightly. Vincent watched as Sephiroth’s hands folded carefully over Cloud’s back instead of squeezing him in return. Trying so hard to be careful with hands that were designed to kill.

“Claudia,” he said softly. “Might we have a word?”

Once he’d have been devising a way to get them out of town. Or to ensure Claudia never spoke a word of it. Or even a word again. But Sephiroth had cried in his arms over the thought of losing a friend. Sephiroth had been so careful to hug Cloud gently, even though he wanted him so badly. If Sephiroth’s hands could be gentle, maybe he could teach his to be too.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, and for the request!  
> Please donate to https://atlsolidarity.org/ if you can to support my local BLM movement!


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